With school bouldering walls becoming common, training teachers to use them effectively is important. The Outdoor Education Advisors Panel are addressing this issue.

One very useful resource to help teachers are the Outdoor Learning Cards (OLC), published by the Outdoor Education Advisors Panel (OEAP) in 2008. The OLC activities contribute directly to a wide range of educational and development aims for young people and cover four elements of Outdoor Learning that can be delivered on a school/youth club site and surrounding environment:

• Orienteering
• Team Building and Problem Solving
• Bouldering - Use of low level climbing walls
• Journeying - Local visits organised by young people

The OLC are supported by a Handbook and CD that provide detailed information on all aspects of activity delivery. Key elements are explored further in the six hour training course.

OEAP members deliver training sessions for teachers in how to use the cards, and at a recent OEAP conference an OLC bouldering workshop was delivered by Owen Hayward and Jon Garside. Owen wrote the bouldering OLC and Jon manages the BMC FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops.

Bouldering can provide inventive ways for teachers to fulfil other curriculum needs. One OEAP member at the conference noted how one teacher tagged hand holds with numbers or letters, with the children allowed only to use holds with vowels, or even numbers for example. In this way, the bouldering supported the classroom learning. 

During a teaching session a small traversing wall may be used by whole class of children, and so inventive ways of developing children's climbing skills both on and off the wall are covered in the cards.

The provision of traversing walls is quite varied across Britain. They are certainly more prevalent in Wales and Scotland than in England, with some authorities, such as Conwy, providing all of their primary schools with such facilities.



One activity covered in the workshop involved coloured footholds on the floor, which could be moved around to make the activity easier or more challenging.

The BMC also provide training in the teaching of climbing movement through the FUNdamentals of Climbing Workshops.

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